A federally funded astronomy lab wants regulators to kill SpaceX's next Starlink expansion outright.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory has formally opposed SpaceX's application for a third-generation Starlink constellation of up to 100,000 satellites. NRAO's filing does not request tweaks, spectrum-sharing terms, or brightness limits. It asks that the application be withdrawn entirely. That is a flat rejection, not a negotiating position.
Radio telescopes are built to detect extremely faint signals, so interference invisible to everyday technology can blind an instrument outright. A constellation this size would be a wholesale change to the radio environment those telescopes depend on, not a marginal addition to the sky. NRAO's all-or-nothing stance suggests it sees no engineering fix, only a deployment that should not happen as proposed.
It is a blunt opening position from a government lab against a satellite fleet SpaceX has not yet built, and it puts the FCC in the position of weighing basic science against broadband ambition at a scale neither side can fully test in advance.